Past Film/Video | Documentaries

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of "Midnight Cowboy"

(Nancy Buirski, 2022)

Preceded by Andy Warhol Films Jack Smith Filming "Normal Love" 
(Bruce Checefsky, 2023)

A red-tinted close-up of a man looking at a woman’s ring-clad fingers in front of a mirror; she is smiling at him. The right side of the image is blurry.

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of "Midnight Cowboy" chronicles the lives of the talented but often troubled people behind the classic but controversial 1969 film.

Featuring extensive archival material and compelling new interviews, Nancy Buirski’s Desperate Souls, Dark City illuminates how Midnight Cowboy captured the essence of New York City at a specific time, reflecting a rapidly changing society with striking clarity. Instead of a typical making-of documentary, Desperate Souls documents the lives of the people who made this difficult masterpiece. (101 mins., DCP)

More than 50 years after its release, Midnight Cowboy—which screens here for free on July 29—remains one of the most original and groundbreaking movies of the modern era. With memorable performances from Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman as two outsiders who are brought together out of desperation and John Schlesinger’s fearless direction, the film became the only X-rated film to ever win the Academy Award for Best Picture (the rating then simply meant a film was intended for adults only before being coopted by the pornography industry). Its vivid depiction of a more realistic, unvarnished New York City and its inhabitants was influential for a generation’s worth of gritty movies about the city.

Both screenings of the documentary begin with Cleveland filmmaker Bruce Checefsky’s Andy Warhol Films Jack Smith Filming "Normal Love," a recreation of Warhol’s lost film that disappeared after it was seized by police following a screening in 1964. (5:43 mins., DCP)

IMAGE CAPTION 
Desperate Souls, Dark City, courtesy of Zeitgeist Films.

SUPPORT FOR FILM/VIDEO PROGRAMS PROVIDED BY 
Rohauer Collection Foundation 

WEXNER CENTER PROGRAMS MADE POSSIBLE BY
Greater Columbus Arts Council
The Wexner Family
National Endowment for the Arts
Ohio Arts Council
L Brands Foundation
The Columbus Foundation
Ohio State's Global Arts + Humanities Discovery Theme
Nationwide Foundation
Institute of Museum and Library Services
Vorys, Sater, Seymour, and Pease 

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT PROVIDED BY
Mike and Paige Crane
Axium Packaging
CampusParc
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams
President Kristina M. Johnson and Mrs. Veronica Meinhard
Nancy Kramer
Ohio State Energy Partners
Ohio History Fund/Ohio History Connection
Larry and Donna James
Lisa Barton
Johanna DeStefano
Jones Day
Alex and Renée Shumate

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Past Film/Video

Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of "Midnight Cowboy"